As Canelo Alvarez enters a new and probably final era of his epic career, it is a good time to reflect on the most significant fights of his future Hall of Fame career.
While the announcement that Canelo would face William Scull — a boxer little known beyond hardcore boxing fans — was a little underwhelming, it is the start of a new chapter for the super middleweight boss.
It marks Alvarez’s first of four fights with Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Season and will offer him the chance to win back the IBF belt he was stripped of last year after he declined to fight the mandatory challenger Scull. A bigger fight also lies in wait for Alvarez (62-2-2, 39 KOs) — if he wins — against two-division undisputed champion Terence Crawford in September, which is likely to be the biggest boxing event of 2025.
Becoming undisputed super middleweight champion again would be a major landmark in Alvarez’s 20-year career, but there have been many others.
Here’s a look at the 11 biggest moments of one of this era’s biggest boxing stars.
At just 20 years of age, Alvarez won his first world title with a dominant decision win over Hatton, brother of two-weight world champion Ricky Hatton.
“This was my first world title shot, but it’s the first of many and I’ll win them all for my fans, I’m going to be the next big name of Mexico,” Canelo said after the fight.
He was not wrong.
Alvarez won the vacant WBC junior middleweight title and for many boxing fans, it was the first time they had seen him in action.
Canelo, who had already been a professional for five years, earned landslide scores of 119-108 on all three scorecards at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. He was docked a point for hitting Hatton out of a clinch but otherwise won every round.
“I knew straight away he was a super fighter — he was very strong and picked his punches so well. It was a painful night for me,” Hatton told ESPN in 2021. “I was a career welterweight and he had a huge size advantage over me so I was really up against it. It was like going into battle with a pea shooter.”
For the second successive year, Canelo recorded a career-changing win on Cinco de Mayo weekend, and this triumph was the launchpad to bigger fights.
Mosley, 40 at the time, was a shadow of his former self, with declining reflexes and speed. But claiming a victory over a boxing legend was an important boost for the then 21-year-old’s career and profile.
Canelo’s unanimous decision win was chief support to Floyd Mayweather’s win over Miguel Cotto at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and rocked Mosley multiple times as he landed 348 of 673 punches (52%).
“I didn’t expect him to be that fast or that good,” Mosley said of Canelo after the fight. “He’s up there with the top guys I’ve faced. Mayweather is fast, Cotto, all those guys I fought. He’s up there with them.”
National pride was never in doubt when Canelo moved up to super middleweight and utterly dominated Chavez on Cinco de Mayo weekend — and then immediately announced he would be fighting unified middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin on Sept. 16, Mexican Independence Day weekend.
The most exciting part about the unanimous 120-108 scores in a one-sided, predictable fight at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas was the launchpad to a very entertaining Canelo vs. Golovkin trilogy.
The boxing world rejoiced at the confirmation of the long-awaited showdown.
Chavez was overmatched and the fight overhyped, but his name (the son of the legendary Julio Cesar Chavez, a three-weight world champion) meant this was a big fight for Mexico. Canelo was much quicker against the biggest opponent he had ever faced. He had a 228-71 edge in punches landed and an 83-15 advantage in jabs landed.
Canelo’s victory cleared the way for Golovkin and perhaps gave Alvarez the confidence he could compete beyond middleweight.